Black & White 2

Nothing is ever Black & White, Sam discovers...

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Peter Molyneux is an enigmatic figure who stands as one of the gaming industry's greatest and most well know luminaries. He was a key designer at the now-defunct Bullfrog, a legendary development company back in the heyday of 16-bit computing and the source of many of the best god-games of the era. One could justifiably claim that Mr Molyneux was the driving force behind the very creation of the god-game genre and his name is certainly synonymous with lording it up over computerised minions. Unfortunately, his name has also become synonymous with broken promises and the over-hyping of his projects. For too long now every new game that he attaches his name to has fallen rather short of the grandiose vision that originally enticed eager gamers. For this reason I like to think of Peter Molyneux as the little developer who cried unicorn.

Nearly ten years in the making gamers have only recently been able to play his latest deity simulator, Black & White. Since an earlier tech demo was commercially released four years ago, for marketing purposes there is now a number 2 at the end of the game's title. Disregarding that clarification this is the closest to the game we have been promised by Mr Molyneux that we are ever likely to see. Sure, it is still missing many of the features we were lured with all those years ago but at least there is a functioning game bundled with the gloriously pretty engine.

The basic premise is the same as it always has been in a god game. You are a divine entity, bristling with the promise of untold power but only able to perform a few minor miracles until you build up the number of your believers. Make enough people worship you, either through benevolent acts or from the sheer terror induced by your wrath, and you will become a supreme being, able to rend apart the very world in the pursuit of your goals. To help you achieve your aims you have a living embodiment of your will in the shape of the Creature, a living beast which takes the form of one of four animals, (or five if you shell out an extra fiver for the Collector's Edition). Just like you the Creature starts off weak and unimpressive but over time their abilities will be inferior only to your own. Together the two of you must conquer a series of islands in your quest to avenge the destruction of your previous domain at the hands of the evil Aztecs.

There's a lot more direction in the gameplay this time round. The silver scrolls make a return, with each one leading to a variety of mini games. Fortunately there's nothing as tedious as in the previous attempt yet nor is there anything particularly enjoyable. I was left with the impression the silver scroll games were all the result of an early morning brainstorming session where too many slow-release carbohydrates were consumed. Each of the islands also has range of objectives to complete, such as reaching a certain size of town or getting your creature to collect a certain amount of resources. Complete each of these and you will be rewarded with some tribute. Tribute is effectively the game's currency so amassing as much of it as possible is one of the driving forces that will see you through each level. Disappointingly, everything you can buy in the game is visible from the start so there are no real surprises to reward the committed player. The most impressive things you can buy, the wonders, also cost a phenomenal amount of tribute and would be a lot easier to acquire if you forgo building a paradise and addressed the enemy tribes with the point of the sword.

One of many new aspects introduced since 2001 are tribes. There are four of them in total, each with their own architectural style and voiceovers. Just like your own followers they can now build up grand armies and wage war. Yes, warfare has finally come to the realm of Black & White. You can still hurl rocks and burning trees at your foes or send your Creature in to take a giant poo right in the middle of their town centre yet whereas previously the townsfolk would be nothing more then potential victims they can now be gathered up sent off to battle with proper swords, arrows and siege weapons. Like many things in the game this initially sounds like great fun, but the RTS aspect of B&W 2 is so simplistic as to become a chore as ennui sets in. The AI of your own troops isn't too bad as in they can find there way to their destination and then swing weapons at whatever happens to be there. The AI of your foes, on the other hand, seems to consist of little more than a line of code which spawns them at a set rate - for free - from enemy towns and then sends them in piecemeal to throw themselves against the walls of your town. Combined arms are necessary for you to succeed on the battlefield but the concept has apparently never been developed by the opposing tribes. The battles themselves can be spectacular, most satisfyingly so when your siege engines are smashing through the walled defences of your next conquest, yet the challenge they present to the gamer is rudimentary and typically derives from battling the camera controls rather than the enemy soldiers.

Fortunately there's more then one way to succeed at this game. Rather than choose the path of evil and take over towns by force you can try to impress their citizens with your might and building prowess. No matter what path you chose you will need to make a place for your followers to live and fields for them to grow grain. Building a basic town is required regardless of whether you want to be evil or good, but building a magnificent city is the way to go if you want to win while keeping a halo firmly attached to your head. There are many structures which, once the plans have been purchased with tribute, can be built to improve both the happiness and impressiveness of your town. If you really want to impress the locals a smart, sensible layout which pays heed to aesthetics will serve you well, as will sprinkling the settlement with embellishments such as torches, columns and meadows, (there are also evil structures like punishment spikes, prisons and torture pits to allow evil players to keep their settlements in a functional state). Once your town reaches a certain level of impressiveness the nearby settlements of the opposing side will up sticks and make their way to your town. Over time each and every settlement on an island can be taken over in this way. It's actually too easy to amuse yourself building up a stunning looking city only to find you have won over the entire island without breaking a sweat. The realisation of the gameworld is so spectacular that I found the city building option the most pleasing to follow, although by the time I was setting out on my fourth new town the lack of purpose other than to place more and more structures began to get boring. Things are much improved from before but as is common with the rest of the game a sense of purpose, and resulting reward, is still too fleeting and ephemeral to maintain the interest over a long period of time.